A Race Against Time
by Shaed Knightwing
Summary: When everything seems hopeless, help can appear in the last place you'd expect. Your own mind. This is my first fanfic so please be nice! This was something I wrote for an English assignment, otherwise I would've given it a better title.


A Race Against Time

I dawdled along the dark footpath, walking slowly with my head down. I tapped the cracks between the pavers with my toe as I moved along. The golden light from the setting sun broke into my line of sight as I left the dark corridor of industrial buildings and made my way over to the large, steel bridge. I stood on the edge of the road, there was no pavement on the side of this bridge, people didn't usually come here, which was why I had specifically chosen this place. Taking a deep breath, I began to lift myself onto the railing when I heard, but didn't hear, a voice behind me.

"Don't." Was all it said, but I knew who's voice it was, I didn't need to turn to see, but not see, the being it belonged to.

"You can't be here." I murmured quietly, but the boy heard, he would hear even if I hadn't spoken. I sighed and turned. The boy I saw behind me looked about twelve years old, three years younger than I. His golden brown eyes stared back into mine worriedly, of course they were eyes that weren't truly there, the boy's black messy hair wasn't there, neither were his blue pants, nor his crimson shirt and brown vest, they were as real as the strange markings on his shoulders and red sleeves that he wore on his arms. This boy didn't exist; only in my mind was he truly there. Cooro was just the figment of my imagination that had decided to stay after I created him ten years ago. "Go away Cooro, I'm doing this whether my sub-conscience wants me to or not." I willed for him to go, I let my mind relax and pictured the kid disappearing without a trace. But he was still there, this was rather strange, Cooro was just an imaginary friend, _**I**_ controlled his actions, _**I**_ created his words, _**I**_ caused him to appear, _**I**_ checked him out of my mind whenever I wanted him to go... but it wasn't happening now. I stared back into those childish eyes that so often held laughter and amusement, the eyes that so often smiled with happiness, the eyes that had not a care in the world. Except now, I couldn't understand what was happening. There was no way that I could have imagined the look in his eyes, that frightened, worried and sad, that oh-so sad look.

He didn't move, he didn't speak. He just stood there, pleading with his eyes. I shook my head at him.

"Cooro, I-I just can't go back," my voice cracked as my mind phased out to a world that caused my heart to break and great veil of sadness to cloud my heart. "I just can't." I ended in a whisper.

I turned away from the raven haired boy. Cooro was, and always had been, my only friend. When I was young I discovered his character in a manga and was instantly intrigued by his optimistic, simple-minded, goofy and oh-so innocent personality, and especially the special gift he had been born with-the ability to sprout wings like a bird and soar through the air.

Whenever I was upset from someone making fun of my ratty clothes or my scrawny malnourished body he would be there, telling me that it was okay, that I was me and no-one had the right to say anything against that. It used to work, I would walk around, head held high, proud of the fact that I had the most wonderful friend that every child had dreamed of but could never have. And he was all mine. But eventually I got worried, was it normal for a girl entering high school to have a friend that only she could see or hear? The problem was that no matter how hard I tried, the dark haired boy just kept reappearing whenever I was upset or angry, like clockwork.

"You've had a hard life," Cooro began softly, "But you can't let that ruin your future, that's what they want, your mother, your father, the other students. This is what they want, in doing this you're letting them win." The young boy watched me carefully, his eyes full of such feelings that a child of twelve, imaginary or not, should never have to experience. "You have been blessed with a life, don't throw away that of which cannot be easily sought." As those last words left Cooro's lips his face fell into a sadness that seemed so deep that no matter how far you tried to reach for the joy in his heart, you would just fall and be consumed by the depression that appeared to seep from the young boy's soul. It was too much.

I felt guilt for my friend grip every portion of my body as I leapt in one great motion from the bridge into the dark waters below. I could hear Cooro scream my name in his high childish voice, could hear him flapping the large black wings that I had been jealous of for my whole life. But it was too late. He wouldn't be able to reach me; he wouldn't even be able to touch me. I closed my eyes against the rushing wind as I waited for the impact of water hitting my body at high speed...it didn't come. I opened my eyes and the first thing I saw was myself, no, my reflection-in the water. I was skimming over the crystal clear waters of the lake that the bridge I had jumped from crossed. The second thing I saw were a pair of feathered arms clutching around my chest. A _solid_ pair of feathered arms.

After a few moment of trying to gather my thoughts I looked up into the face of my rescuer, a face that mirrored my shocked expression. Cooro was flying, _with me in his arms._

The black winged boy had competed in a race against time, _and he won_.

Far too soon my feet were hitting solid Earth once again, Cooro landed softly beside me silently staring at the golden glow that slowly deteriorated from our sites as the sun went down behind the bars of the bridge, eventually, the boy spoke, in a tone that didn't belong to him.

"You were saved by a miracle today," he spoke quietly, as if afraid that raising his voice even a tiny bit higher would shatter the peaceful yet sad atmosphere. "Miracles don't happen every day, you know that." He turned towards me and lifted his now transparent hands onto my shoulders. "You have been done wrong but now is your chance to get things right," He stroked the sides of my shoulders gently with slim fingers that were now almost invisible, I felt a warm burning feeling at his touch but then it was gone. "You have the one thing that all those who despise you for being you don't have."

I suddenly felt young again, like the five year old I was when I had first conjured my black winged friend; I was now looking up into those bright golden-brown eyes that were once again full of joy and happiness.

"What?" I asked him, my voice the high, squeaky tone of a young, curious child, "What have I got?" He smiled at me gently, his form fading away to almost nothing. With his now transparent body, he said the six words that made my heart swell with need, a need to see, a need to hear, a need to walk, a need to run, _a need to live._

I skipped along the dark footpath, walking leisurely with my head faced to the sky. I tapped the cracks between the pavers with my toe as I moved along. The golden light from the rising sun broke into my line of sight as I left the dark corridor of industrial buildings and made my way over to the large, steel bridge. I stood on the edge of the road, there was no pavement on the side of this bridge, people didn't usually come here, which was why I had specifically chosen this place. I hesitated for a moment, I knew he wasn't coming, I hadn't seen him for a month, but that was as long as I was going to wait.

With single-minded determination I jumped up onto the ledge of the bridge, a memory of the last month flashed into my head, it was one of the only memories from my once dismal life that made me smile.

I pictured the boy clearly; I could even remember the exact words he had used at that time.

'_You have the one thing that all those who despise you for being you don't have', 'What? What have I got?'_

As this memory replayed itself in my head, I jumped from the ledge that I stood on. Cooro's face appeared once again in my mind as the last six words he had ever said to me floated through my ears as if being carried by the wind.

'_A gift, from a true friend.'_

A second before I hit the smooth, clear water, I felt my shoulders grow warm and a pair of black wings sprouted from them, tearing through my t-shirt, and I began flapping hard to keep myself aloft.

Swiftly, as if I had been doing it for years, I swerved and looped through the air, gently rising with the thermals into the neverending sky.

Silently, I thanked the angel who had saved my life in the form of the black winged boy.

_Thank you Cooro, you are indeed, a true friend._


End file.
